Alfred Rowswell, a 46-year-old Caucasian man, was murdered on July 17, 1986, in his apartment in the LaFayette Park area of Los Angeles. He was strangled after inviting a man he had met at a known pickup spot for male street hustlers back to his home. The attacker reportedly held Rowswell at knifepoint, tied him up, and then strangled him. Personal items taken in the robbery included Rowswell’s car, which was later recovered in Utah; an unidentified male fingerprint was found on the driver-side window.

Investigators later linked Rowswell’s killing to a series of murders of gay men in Los Angeles County between 1986 and 1990. The suspect in those cases, Juan Chavez, used a pattern of meeting victims, gaining entry to their homes, then binding and strangling them. Chavez was convicted of multiple murders, including Rowswell’s, and received five consecutive life terms without parole.